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food photography tip no. 4: always bring your (charged) camera with you. don't leave it charging on the kitchen counter when you are in mexico. or k-mart.

food photography tip no. 5: understand the limitations of your camera, work with them. i spent about $150 on my point and shoot digital camera that has a horrible flash, and a really terrible macro lens. that means i usually shoot in natural light, and i don't take close up photos.

I love this serious of food photography tips. Being a budding food photographer, I find that the flash just isn't helpful in most cases. If you can set the ISO high enough to avoid graininess in dim light, you can usually get a decent photo. And for those places where it's really dark, maybe they just don't deserve a photo!

Great point about knowing your camera's limitations. There seems to be a perception that everyone needs a Canon EOS as a kind of absolute minimum for decent food photography but that's crap. I got a Canon compact digital largely on the basis of it's great macro function and because you can shoot in aperture priority, and I get pictures as good as those shot with far better cameras. I know exactly what it can and can't do and I hope I'm getting the best quality possible out of it. I never (well, maybe 0.01% of my shots) shoot food using a flash. In low light I get in close and use an aperture of 2.8 and that has always delivered reasonably sharp shots that can be fixed up in Photoshop later if the room was very dark. I go for sharp focus over almost anything because you can fix almost anything in Photoshop - except dodgy focus! ;-)

DISCLAIMER: this is a personal journal with no desires to be anything but. it contains my opinion with occasional fact thrown in; recipes have been tested where noted, in an unairconditioned kitchen in the tropics. YMMV. for my sake and yours, consult a professional!